Rumination and Acceptance Differentially Modulate the Scope of Attention

Rumination, characterized by repetitive and intrusive thoughts about negative personal events, has been linked to a narrow attentional scope. Conversely, emotional acceptance, which involves fully experiencing emotions in a nonevaluative way, is theorized to broaden attention. However, empirical data that support the theoretical link between rumination, acceptance, and the attentional scope are scarce. The present study examined the effects of rumination and acceptance on local (narrow attention) versus global (broad attention) processing styles. Seventy-two healthy participants were asked to describe a distressing personal event. Then, participants implemented rumination or acceptance to cope with that event. Before and after the implementation phase, participants completed a global/local processing task. The results showed that rumination led to a pre- to postmanipulation increase in local interference (i.e., greater interference caused by details when attending to a whole figure) and a decrease in global interference (i.e., smaller interference caused by a whole figure while attending to the details). In contrast, implementing emotional acceptance led to a pre- to postmanipulation reduction in local interference, with no change in global interference. Post hoc analyses indicated that the effects of rumination and acceptance on processing style were not mediated by affective changes that resulted from implementing these strategies. The findings provide support for the role played by rumination in narrowing the attentional scope and partial support for the effect of acceptance on broadening attention.